Dark Obsession (Vampire Royals of New York #3) - Sarah Piper Page 0,76
me some time to find all the pieces scattered among his notes, but that is the formula, precisely as he recorded it, along with my modifications.” He backed away from the mantle with his hands raised as if the syringe were poison.
It was poison, Dorian realized. It had killed their father and would just as surely kill them. Faster, if Colin’s modifications worked as designed.
“So there you have it,” Colin said. “An easy escape from all your many burdens—yours for the taking.” He spun on his heel, glaring at each of them in turn. “Gabriel? Do you wish to test it? Malcolm? Dorian? By all means, brothers. I could definitely use a test subject, not to mention some bloody peace and quiet!”
Something dark and sinister flickered in Malcolm’s gaze, and Dorian knew in an instant what he was thinking.
Dorian was there in a blur, swiping the syringe from the mantle and shoving it into his shirt pocket a heartbeat before Malcolm got there.
“Tested or not,” Dorian said, “no one is taking this cure. Not today, not next week, not in a thousand years. That, brothers, is an order.”
Malcolm shook his head, so clearly repulsed by Dorian’s attempt to spare his life, he couldn’t even be bothered to hold on to his anger.
“You’re no better than Father, Dorian,” he said, all the fire gone from his voice. “And because of that, you have doomed us all.”
There was a time when the words might’ve hurt, but Dorian had no more room in his heart for traitors. Especially not the traitors who shared his blood.
Malcolm had been pushing for an alliance with Renault Duchanes from the start. He’d gone behind Dorian’s back to convene a council of imbeciles, the act alone further weakening Dorian’s position. He’d been witnessed feeding on humans with a vampire who’d left Charlotte for dead in an alley full of grays. And he’d just admitted to seeing Renault again, despite everything the other vampire had done to their family and to Charlotte since the night of the fundraiser.
As far as Dorian was concerned, Malcolm was no longer his brother.
Grabbing Malcolm’s elbow and dragging him out of the study and all the way to the front door, Dorian said, “I hereby revoke your royal title and standing, and forsake you as a member of the royal Redthorne family and as my brother.” He shoved him through the doorway and out into the cold night, hardening his heart for the final proclamation. “Darken my doorstep again, Malcolm, and I assure you—that urn will be more than ready to accommodate your remains.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
With one traitorous brother promptly escorted from the manor, Dorian stalked off in search of the other.
He found him pacing the gutted dining room, clutching a bottle of bourbon, as drunk as he was furious—quite an admirable feat for a vampire.
“Is it true?” Dorian demanded. “You and Evie?”
Gabriel laughed, his cold eyes glittering with mockery. “Oh, yes, brother. I was fucking your fiancée right under your nose. That’s what you wanted to hear, was it not? Does it surprise you? You always knew I was the black sheep of the family. The wild one. Uncontrollable. Sounds like a traitor to me.” He took a swig from the bottle, then hurled it into the wall just behind Dorian’s shoulder. “Off with my head!”
“For reasons I cannot fathom,” Dorian ground out, barely keeping his own anger in check, “you’re lying to me.” He knew it as surely as he knew the taste of his own bitter rage.
“What’s done is done. Whether you believe me or not is irrelevant.”
“Believe you? I’m not even sure what you’re saying, Gabriel. Malcolm’s innuendos clearly upset you. So if you didn’t have an affair with her, what secret are you harboring? What was so terrible a crime you felt the need to hide it from me across two continents and two hundred and fifty years?”
“An affair. Right. If only my sins were so… pedestrian.” Gabriel scoffed and turned his back, kicking a loose stone from the rubble at the hearth. “Sorry to shatter your image of me as a shameless reprobate, but no, I wasn’t keeping your fiancée’s bed warm. I was merely keeping her secret.”
“What secret?” Dorian pressed, but of course he already knew. There was only one secret his brother would’ve carried in silent shame for so many years. One secret that had the power to destroy what was left of their nearly broken bond.